Meet Chloe Oloren | Fruitslice Founding Editor-in-Chief

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chloe Oloren and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chloe, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind Fruitslice’s success is our unwavering commitment to community and care—not just for the work we publish, but for the people behind it. We don’t just publish Queer artists; we are actively rethinking what publishing can be. Rather than upholding rigid, exclusionary industry standards, we prioritize collaboration, accessibility, and literary excellence on our own terms.

We care deeply about the quality of our work. We put immense thought into the stories we share, the pieces we write, and the creative conversations we foster. But at the end of the day, we share the belief that no publication deadline is worth suffering for. Too many creative spaces burn out their people in pursuit of prestige or rapid growth, and we’re simply not interested in that. Ironically, by prioritizing our well-being over the magazine’s ‘success,’ we’ve built something that feels more sustainable, more intentional, and ultimately, more successful than we ever could have planned.

Our editorial process is deeply collaborative, prioritizing relationships over hierarchy and amplifying each contributor’s voice. We approach storytelling as both an archive of contemporary Queer life and a blueprint for imagining liberatory futures. We believe literature can be bold, imperfect, and deeply transformative all at once.

We know we’re going to fail. We expect to. Prioritizing the humanity of an organization means valuing our imperfections, not fearing them. We’ve built this magazine on the understanding that rest and resilience go hand in hand—that sustainability isn’t just about keeping the publication running, but about keeping each other afloat. We take turns rowing the boat while others rest, trusting that when we fall (because we will), we’ll get right back up together.

That’s what keeps people coming back—not just the magazine itself, but the feeling that we’re building something bigger than the sum of its parts.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Fruitslice: A Queer Quarterly is a fully Queer-run, volunteer-powered publication featuring work exclusively from Queer writers, artists, and creators. We celebrate sharp, tender, and unexpected writing—publishing poetry, essays, fiction, journalism, and experimental work that explores the Queer experience in all its depth and complexity—from the deeply personal to the wildly political. At its core, Fruitslice is built on the belief that literature is a space for community. Inspired by radical Queer theorists, and the history of underground media, we are creating a living archive of contemporary Queerness, understanding that to document our present is to imagine our future. Each issue is both a time capsule and blueprint for liberation.

We see publishing as both an act of documentation and an act of imagination—each issue is both a time capsule of Queer life today and a blueprint for liberation. Every issue of Fruitslice is a collective effort, shaped by the writers, artists, and readers who believe in what we’re doing.

But getting here hasn’t been simple. Without institutional backing or a clear roadmap, we’ve had to figure out how to sustain ourselves without compromising our values. The challenge has always been growth—how to expand while staying true to what we believe in, balancing literary excellence with accessibility, ambition with care.

We always say it feels like building the plane while flying it. We didn’t start with a perfect business plan or secure funding—we started with one idea that sparked another, and then another, until we were running to keep up with the growth of these flames.

This isn’t a linear path—it’s a snowball, gaining momentum because Queer stories matter. And when something matters, it finds a way to keep going. But part of that means unlearning what we’ve been taught—to reject urgency culture, to separate our worth from output, and to trust that something can succeed even if it looks nothing like the models we’ve been told to follow.

It’s hard. But it’s possible. And we’re proof of that.

Fruitslice is proving that a publication can be both high-quality and radically inclusive, both structured and fluid, both ambitious and sustainable.

What we want the world to know is that Queer stories matter.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If a best friend were visiting, we’d start with the bookstores that feel like home to Fruitslice!

We’d take them first to A Good Used Book in Echo Park and say hi to the owners—They are the nicest people ever!

While we’re there, we’d stop in quickly to get a cardamom bun from Clark Street Diner, and if we are hungry later, we will go to Gra for pizza that will ruin all other pizza.

We’d definitely hit Counterpoint Records & Books in Franklin Village (where we launched the second issue of Fruitslice). We’ll lose hours flipping through vinyl and rare books. The staff knows everything about everything!

For a taste of independent publishing culture, we’d visit Heavy Manners Library, this perfect spot is archiving zines and experimental works. It feels like stepping into someone’s brain – in a good way.

We’d catch a show at Scribble, then we’d walk to The Pop-Hop or we’d hunt down Huck & Puck Books at whatever super cool event he’d be at. We’d make sure you’d leave with a tote bag full of small press treasures, including a print copy of Fruitslice, obviously.

We’d make sure to check out a Per Verse by Verse open mic, a Cuties event, or maybe The Queer Mercado.

We’d hang out on the back patio of Stories Books & Cafe for journal writing and we’d probably bum a cig.

We’d definitely make you hang out at Intelligentsia on Sunset just to see the dogs that show up there—so many good ones with the best personalities.

We’d spend at least one afternoon doing nothing at Silverlake Meadows and we’d get a huge tub of fruit from a street vendor.

We’d likely find some of LA’s hidden staircases and we’d try to spot the horses that live in Elysian Park.

We’d need to take at least one picture in front of the blue scientology building.

We’d probably pick a loquat off a tree and eat it, right there, no washing, just trusting the world to be kind to us for a moment.

We’d show you how some of the sidewalks have the year they were laid stamped into them.

We’d jump in the ocean because you have to (the Pacific is colder than you’d think).

We’d walk at night, past the glowing signs of taco trucks and neon-lit liquor stores, past people laughing on patios, past a mural we’d never noticed before. We’d play chess on the outdoor tables at El Prado.

Then, we’d grab a bottle of something from Silverlake Wine and we’d drink it somewhere we probably shouldn’t be drinking it, but no one would stop us because we’d look like we belong.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Fruitslice exists because of the brave Queer creators who documented our community’s stories when mainstream spaces refused to see us. Our roots run deep through underground AIDS crisis publications that merged urgency with creativity, and the Riot Grrrl zine makers who taught us that messy, authentic expression is revolution.

We’re building on the foundation laid by successful alternative publications like Polyester Zine, Archer Magazine, as well as the countless DIY Queer zines distributed hand-to-hand at community centers and bookstores.

Our collective approach draws from brilliant academic Queer theorists like José Muñoz, who taught us that documentation is future-building, and Paul Soulellis, who showed us how typography itself can be an act of resistance.

But beyond that, we owe everything to the community that holds us up today—to the writers and artists who trust us with their work, the readers who show up issue after issue, and the editors and volunteers who pour their time, love, and labor into keeping Fruitslice alive.

Finally, a shoutout to small bookstores, indie publishers, and DIY creators who remind us that literature doesn’t need permission to exist. We don’t have to wait for the publishing industry to make room for us—we can build something of our own.

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